Campylobacter jejuni is one of the leading causes of food poisoning in Australia and a recent doctoral thesis has shown that there is a greater likelihood of it's growth under certain weather conditions.

It is interesting that these exact conditions have been the way of life for many in Australia over our summer.

This bacteria often occurs in the intestines of many broiler chickens and if there is heavy rain and temperatures above 6C, the thesis shows that it will grow more rapidly and infect more birds.

The author, Malin Jonsson, presented her thesis in January after doing the research for it in Norway between 2006 and 2010.

This bacteria is recognised as the most frequently reported cause of bacteria related diaarrhoea in Europe.

So it is now obvious that minimising the number of infected birds will reduce the Campylobacter incidents. Further research in Denmark has shown that flies are a key to spreading infection in a flock.

So keeping flies away and controlling the climate of the birds will have signficant impact on reducing Campylobacter incidence.